OH MY GODS! I am so sorry I am a day late. I couldn't update yesterday because I was gone. I honestly can't say the next update will be on time as I don't have internet in my house yet. That's bo excuse though I promise I will attempt to keep on top of things.
I guess I'll dedicate this to James my friend I met in Korea, thanks for inspiring me James. :)
Two
Secret of the Silver Bow fun fact 2: Grace's name was going to be Dawn but I couldn't find an Irish word meaning Dawn so to make everything fit with the plot I needed the Irish word, so I changed her name to Grace.
Arches and Scorpions
Key – The Wild
The Conscious
The Instinct
Shamrock
Shamrock
I woke with a start, Grace was asleep, her head on my shoulder. That was what woke me up, I breathed a sigh of relief and thought about waking her, but that would be rude. I rested my head on the top of hers, Lilly and Annabeth made 'Awwwwww' faces from across the aisle. I motioned for them to stop it. Lilly rolled her eyes and shook her head.
"It's cute." Lilly whispered.
"No it's not, it's uncomfortable." I pouted.
"Well we, only have a half an hour, I suggest waking her up." Lilly motioned to Grace.
I reached over and tapped her shoulder, she opened her eyes. "Morning, come on we're nearly there." It was a little gruff and I was a bit grumpy.
"Someone's grumpy." Grace muttered rubbing her eyes. "Did you miss your nap?"
"No he slept for like, four hours." Lilly said. I rolled my eyes as the bus pulled into the station.
"Can we go to the arch?" Annabeth asked.
I frowned. "Percy said you've already been to the arch."
"Yeah and he fell off of it. There was a lion and an old lady, long story short I didn't get to see much of the actual arch." Annabeth protested.
"Annabeth I don't care what you do but I am getting something to eat." I said.
"I second the food motion." Grace nodded, my stomach growled.
"Okay then Lilly and I will go to the arch and you two can eat, we'll meet below the arch at four, bye!" Annabeth practically flew off the bus, Lilly being pulled after her and speeds which shouldn't be possible for a normal mortal.
Grace leaned over. "She knows we're five miles from the arch right?"
I shrugged. "I don't know it's Annabeth she'll get there if it kills her." I grabbed my pack back and got off the bus. Grace trailed a bit behind me at first, but once we were out of the bus stop she walked forward and grabbed my hand.
"It's a big city; I don't want to get separated." She said and drug me off. We found a taxi and rode to the arch.
"What are we going to eat?" I asked.
"They have hot dog stands." She suggested. Fifteen minutes later we were sitting on a bench easing hot dogs. When I was done I reached over and started to braid Grace's hair. "What are you doing?"
"Braiding your hair." I answered.
"Why?" She raised her eyebrows.
"Because I like too."I smiled.
"Gods Shamrock, obsessive much?" She asked.
"It's pretty." I said.
She scowled and became very quiet. We still had a half an hour until Annabeth and Lilly arrived. It was the most awkward half an hour of my life, Grace and I didn't speak, we hardly looked at each other and we sat on opposite sides of the bench.
As soon as Annabeth and Lilly set eyes on us they knew something was wrong, they didn't say anything though. They just motioned for us to follow them
We stole another car and drove for an hour in silence. Annabeth insisted that she could drive and made me and Grace move to the back of the car for a while. It was a small car and Grace sat next to me and put her head on my shoulder.
After about three hours of the same scenery (Field after field of nothingness) I started to fall asleep, I only slept about an hour before I heard screaming. I sat up and found that our engine was smoking, and there was a green bomb tapped to the front.
I frowned "May I suggest we get out of the car?"
"No," Lilly's voice dripped with sarcasm. "We should all just stay here and die."
"Don't use sarcasm with me that's my thing." I argued.
"Just get out of the car!" Annabeth screamed and we jumped out of the car which exploded into flames of green a few seconds later.
"A Greek fire bomb, great. Just once could it be your grade A terrorist? Once in my life I don't want something ruined by immortals!" I huffed.
"Shamrock what's that?" Grace asked, pointing out over a field where the ground started shaking, and then it rose up.
A giant scorpion, fifty feet tall, it's huge legs as tall as me at the first joint, the hairs on it were as big as tree branches, it's pincers could easily crush us all if it had to it's beady black eyes were staring at us with distaste. The armor plating was so thick I doubt a sword could pierce or even dent it. I wasn't worried about that though, I was worried about the stinger, it was thick as a tree, and pointed to a needle tip, the poison dripped off of it as it looked at us.
The scorpion would have completely free 360 degree movement of that stinger; even if it couldn't see us it could still just swing its stinger and knock us into range. It was the most disgusting sight I've ever seen.
"That, Grace, is Scorpio." I muttered, I heard Annabeth whimper behind me. "I take it you don't like arachnids. Well if it makes you feel better Athena didn't create this one, it was all Apollo."
"The one that killed Orion?" Annabeth asked.
"No, that was my mom. This was created as one of the beasts Orion had to hunt to win the favor of my mother, it was actually just Apollo he was trying to impress, my mom already liked him. Apollo though gave him a set of ten monsters to hunt and kill, then-"
"Shut up. I think it noticed us." Lilly said.
"Well of course it noticed us." I said.
"No really it- Get out of the way!" Lilly yelled, I grabbed Annabeth, who was too stunned to move and pulled her out of the way. Just seconds later the stinger his where we had been I drew my bow, and looked at my sister
"Grace!" I yelled. "Take Annabeth and get out of the way, into the field!" Grace drug Annabeth into the field "Lilly we have to aim at the stinger, that's where Orion killed it.
She nodded and we took aim, before we could shoot though the scorpion swung it's stinger around, I jumped but it caught Lilly, she held on to the end of the stinger but she was dangerously close to the tip. It was up to me the tail swung around and knocked me to the ground. I raised my bow took aim and fired.
Time seemed to slow down, Scorpio froze and made and almost comical squeaking noise before dissolving into a pile of dust leaving just the stinger. Lilly hit the ground and I ran over to her.
"Are you okay?" I knelt down next to her
"No, I think I broke a rib or six." She groaned, I handed her a bottle of nectar, she drank from it and a few minutes later sat up.
"Can you walk?" I asked, she nodded and I pulled her to her feet. "Come on the others are somewhere in this wheat field.
Grace
She grabbed Annabeth's hand and raced into the wheat field. They ran deep into the field of wheat until she couldn't see the scorpion, but she could still hear the sounds of the retched creature. Once they were deep enough they stopped and sat down, Annabeth was shaking violently like she was about to throw up.
"It'll be fine; S-sham can handle it." She muttered but Grace realized she was only comforting herself. "S-sham will be okay." She sat down next to Annabeth and they waited
Shamrock
"Lilly if we're twins you can transform into a wolf too." I said.
She nodded and closed her eyes; it took her the better part of ten minutes to finally get it right. She was Carmel colored wolf, slightly smaller than I was (Which was nice because she's six inches taller than me in human form.) Her green eyes had a black marking around them and her fur was slightly wavy. I grinned at her and willed myself to go wolf next to her. She raised a wolfish eyebrow in a very human way. I rolled my eyes.
We ran into the field, I smelled the night air. The wheat, the soil, the animals in the area, Lilac and Lemon. Wait, I turned back to the area I had smelled the Lilac and ran in that direction. I found Grace closer than I had expected and I landed on her. I transformed back to human and she groaned.
"You are heavier then you look." She muttered. "Do me a favor. Get off me." She was blushing and I felt my face get hot. I rolled off of her and stood up.
"Sorry." I said, it took Lilly a few more minutes to transform back and when she did she frowned.
"That is weird." She scowled. She must have not liked the experience much because the look on her face was of distaste.
"Well the first time it is, but the second time it's not." I told her. She turned on me.
"There's not going to be a next time, I like the female deer better." She grumbled.
"Female deer?" I asked.
"Didn't you get an option? My Wild side asked if I wanted a female deer or wolf." She siad.
"No." I muttered.
"I know why." Annabeth chimed.
"Of course you do." I rolled my eyes.
"Well Artemis' sacred Animals are the Wolf and Female deer. Since Shamrock is male he would get only the wolf option, because there are something's that even the gods can't change." She said.
"I guess that makes sense." Grace said. "But now can we get out of this wheat field?" I nodded and turned back the way we came, it was dark but I could still see very well. I motioned for them to follow me, and we walked in silence. Lilly and Annabeth were trailing somewhat behind me and Grace. Grace and I walked a few feet apart and that awkwardness was there, so was her wall of silence, and distrust.
I would do anything I could to break that wall down, to tell her she was safe, that I wouldn't leave her again. She would never believe me though. She would think that I was just like her brother who said that and then died on her.
"Why don't we stop here?" I said. The others nodded, we had left our backpacks in the car which was on fire and surrounded my police cars so those were gone. We ended up just sleeping on the ground using our jackets as pillows or blankets. Grace curled up next to me; I could feel her breath on my neck. I couldn't sleep like that,
Her face was so close to mine, six inches away maybe, I would have moved but Lilly was on the other side of me and Annabeth was at my feet. There was nowhere for me to go, I was stuck. Grace shivered and pushed herself closer to the nearest source of heat. Me, I tensed up, this was going to be the worst night of my life no doubt about it.
I lay awake looking at the stars, Orion was gone and Scorpio was rising, in the more literal sense than one would think. Orion, he had been a nice guy, but I wasn't sure I wanted him to be with my mom, and I was starting to understand why Apollo had been so infuriated around him at first. If he cared for my mom though that was great, maybe I could have grown in like him but right now I didn't. I hadn't even spent that much time with the guy, and when I had he had tried to talk to me about Grace. Yeah, okay it was my mom's idea but he still did it, and that wasn't the kind of topic I would talk with him about. He wasn't my father, he never would be.
I wondered if he was jealous that she had kids with some other guy. Probably not, he didn't seem like that kind of guy. He was probably angry that our father was some jerk who wouldn't raise us. It's not like we're babies though, my mom doesn't have to get up at all hours of the night to feed and change us. Lilly and I are pretty good kids, but I think my mom regrets not being there when we were reaching milestones, like our first word (Mine had been 'no') our first steps (I was nine months old) and the little things like that.
To be honest if my mom could have another child I think she would do so in a heartbeat. It kind of hurts to think that we won't have that birth bond but she loved me and Lilly. That was enough.
Grace shifted resting her head on my chest I gently lifted her off, she seemed a little uncomfortable but I took off my jacket and tucked it under her head, at least I was no longer her pillow. She was however still uncomfortably close to me.
I watched the moon come high in the sky; this told me it was about ten o'clock in the evening. Still too early for me to fall asleep if I got to sleep at all it would be uncomfortable, late and I would drift in and out of it as I did most nights. Sleep insomnia is the worst thing I could ever ask for, especially now that the night was so short, I loved to sleep but with shorter nights and longer days the time I actually spent sleeping was maybe four-six hours a night.
I would have been more comfortable in a forest, this kind of place was, more Demeter style then me style. The wheat seemed to whisper in the cool night breeze millions of stars shown way out here; it was comforting to see the familiar constellations in the dark night sky. Normally I found the dark and the night to be somewhat comforting but this one had a tint of evil to it. Like something bad was coming and I didn't know what. I shook it off, rolled so I had my back to Grace and tried to sleep. It was after midnight when I finally found peace.
This time I was clearly in a nursery. My old nursery, the faded silvery blue crib sat in one corner, the blue curtains fluttered in the breeze, the nursery was dark except for a soft ray of moonlight that fell on the baby in the crib. The infant slept contently, it's small face occasionally scowling. Its blue onesie was plain and simple, the sheets were blue and a blanket lay at the end of the crib. The baby woke and started to cry.
Apollo ran in, his hair messy, his shirt missing and bags under his eyes. He looked like he had in the pictures from when I was born. He pulled the screaming infant from the crib
"Sham, calm down." He whispered to the baby it was me. "You want your mommy don't you? Yeah, you want her to feed you instead of Apollo." Apollo moved to make a bottle. He stuck it in the infants mouth and the baby started to suckle. "I'm sorry, you don't belong here, I'm so sorry." Apollo had tears in his eyes. I realized he wasn't talking about me belonging with him; he was talking about me belonging in the world. The baby calmed and the dream faded slowly away.
I woke to the early morning sunlight and Annabeth bending over me. I sat up and looked around, Grace was awake, her red hair messy, her tunic grubby and over all she didn't look her best. Neither did I, I was covered in dirt, grime and scorpion dust. Annabeth's hair looked like she'd slept in a wheat field; her camp T-shirt and jeans were covered in dirt and grime. Lilly was the cleanest of us, she looked comfortable and freshly washed.
"Where did you get so clean?" Annabeth asked.
"There's a forest in fifty feet, and if you go about a hundred yards in to the forest there is a river." Lilly said.
"When did you find that?" I asked.
"About twenty minutes ago." She rolled her eyes and stood up. We followed her and found the river. Grace looked ready just to jump in fully clothed.
"Okay, fine, Ladies first." I turned and scaled a tree, where I could watch out for things, but not get scarred by seeing the girls bathing.
I sat in my tree and sighed, would it kill the sun to be a little less… bright? I hate the spring, well let me rephrase that. I like the weather but I hate how short the night is, because the as soon as the sun comes up you can bet that I'm going to be up and I hate that. I am a night owl. I love that, but I also love to sleep, which is frustration enough because I fall asleep a couple of hours before dawn. Being up with the sun is one of my many flaws.
Girls I guess would be the other, I am awful with girls. Why can't I take a bath with the door open? Why can't I come into the tent while they change? I mean I know were different but Apollo never cared about changing in front of anyone and once you've been exposed to that you've seen it all.
"Sham! You can bathe now!" Grace yelled from the base of the tree. I hopped down and looked her over, her tunic was still somewhat dirty but her body was clean, I grabbed her hair and sniffed it, the light scent of Lilac was still there but I made a mental note to restock on her shampoo, hers had been blown up in the car. "What are you doing?" She asked.
"Nothing, absolutely nothing at all." I said, and turned and walked off. I waited until they had climbed a tree until I undressed.
The water was cold, when I say that I mean it. I thought my toes would fall off I washed as quickly as possible and got my clothes on even faster.
"Okay I'm dressed." I said. The others hopped out of the tree, well Lilly and Grace hopped Annabeth climbed. "We have to go that way for about five miles and we'll meet a town. I think." I pointed left, the girls nodded and Grace took up the lead, Lilly and I in the back and Annabeth in the middle.
"Are you okay?" Lilly asked.
"Um, yeah." I lied.
"Shamrock, I know you're not okay." She argued.
"Okay fine. Promise you won't laugh?" She nodded and I gave in. "Am I scrawny?" She repressed a laugh. "See your laughing."
"No I'm not." She said still trying not to laugh I scowled and turned away. "Hey wait." She grabbed my shoulders and made me look at her.
"What." I growled.
"1) I think it's kind of cute that you worry over this because you want to impress Grace." She siad.
"I don't-"I started.
"Yes you do now shut up and let me finish." She interjected. "2) Shamrock, I'm not perfect, I'll annoy you, I'll tick you off, I'll say stupid things and take them back but put all of those things aside and you won't find anyone who cares about you more than I do, I'm your sister."
I smiled a bit. "Thanks Lilly."
"3) You aren't scrawny but you completely lack, chest hair, and any noticeable muscle, but you're strong. You are, but you're also ah, scrawny but in a good way." She said.
"Um thanks, I think…" I said.
"You're welcome now come on; let's catch up with the group." She smiled and we ran to catch up.
Lilly
Oh that poor boy. He was so worried about impressing Grace; it was so sad that it wasn't even funny anymore. Okay so it was still a little funny but I worried about him. I know how guilty he felt for falling off the cliff, even though it wasn't his fault. I had woken up more than once to Grace staring at him from the flap of our tent, like she was afraid he would disappear again.
I looked at Grace and Sham, they were talking now and both seemed to be enjoying the others company. I was wary of this because it's like getting two female pit bulls in the same cage; they will be best friends one moment and at each other's throats the next. Really last week we found them wrestling in the grass, Sham had Grace pinned down and Grace was just about to flip them when I came in. Apparently they had been wrestling over tent cleanliness. Grace, though she had a disadvantage because she was at least ten pounds lighter than Shamrock, grew up in a house where she had to fight her brothers. Shamrock lived with Apollo, they both had short fuses and once they were set off that was it and all Hades broke loose.
Annabeth strode up to me. "Hey. Are they normally like this?" I looked at them and they were now bickering.
"Yeah, one minute they're best friends and the next they're fighting." I said. "It gets tiring constantly breaking up fight. I guess it's mostly just pent up emotion that turns to anger."
"It makes sense, since neither one knows how to express certain emotions towards the other it turns into anger aimed at the other." Annabeth nodded.
"Yeah." I said. "That…" Shamrock came back to where we were scowling at me.
Shamrock
I think I had a right to be angry. Grace was being the annoying red head again. I was sick of it, and to be honest I don't know what we were even fighting about any more. It had started out all cheery then in about five seconds flat it turned into this.
I scowled, Lilly mover up to where Grace was and I was left with Annabeth who was studying me carefully. I looked at her. "What?"
"Nothing. Nothing." She said, clearly she was still studying me, which just annoyed me so I moved a few feet away from her. I didn't need to be studied, I wasn't an animal.
You're in a bad mood.
Oh, you noticed.
She's right you know.
Thank you
I know I'm in a bad mood, I'm just stressed out. Really stressed out.
Because of Grace?
No!
Then what is it?
Um, my… foot hurts?
No it doesn't. You don't know how to deal with the emotions you're feeling, so, you're stressing out about it.
Whatever.
"Sham!" Annabeth grabbed the back of my shirt, I blinked. Why was there a wall here? Oh crap. I did it again. "What are you doing?"
"I was having a conversation with the voices in my head!" I snapped. Grace came over and reached for my hand, she squeezed it supportively.
"Come on, let's get a car." She whispered. I nodded, and fallowed her to the parking lot, we knew we would have to steal one; I picked a fairly normal one, that appeared to have enough gas left in it. Grace climbed in the passenger seat and looked at me. "Let's not get this one destroyed."
"Right, we'll try." I said.
"Sham maybe we should pick a different one, they have a baby." Lily said. I reached in the back and grabbed the car seat. I set it next to the car and drove off.
"See now they can keep the car seat." I said. Grace sighed and pulled out of a map. "We're in Clementine, Missouri."
"How did you know that?" She asked.
"Well we just passed a sign for it." I said.
"Oh, anyway we need to head west towards Kansas City, But don't actually go through the city that always seems to cause us trouble." Grace said. I nodded and got on the highway toward Kansas City.
We drove, and drove and drove. As it turns out going around the city was easy, we just fallowed the signs to Leavenworth. That was when we got lost. We found the base and there was a group of four kids, seemingly all siblings standing outside of the base, the oldest was maybe fourteen and the youngest maybe five.
"Um excuse me." I called the oldest boy looked up. "What's your name?"
"Gabe." He looked at his sister.
"Well then, Gabe, where's the nearest highway?" I asked.
"Um, just go straight, you'll run into it." He pointed.
"Thank you." I nodded and drove away.
"Shamrock?" Grace asked.
"Yes." I smiled.
"You freaked him out. Why would you ask a fourteen year old where the nearest highway was?" The way she was saying this made me think it was another one of those little social things.
"Well he clearly lives here and his mom was coming off the base." I said.
"Shamrock, Shamrock, Shamrock." She shook her head. "There is so much you don't get socially. So much."
I didn't get what she meant, so I just shrugged it off it was probably nothing important anyway. Grace seemed to think that all these little social things that I lack are a huge deal but they're not! I know to announce myself before I come into her tent, now.
"Where too?" I asked.
"Um I would find the nearest town, which," Annabeth pulled out a map. "Ought to be Topeka." I got on the highway and started to drive towards Topeka.
The drive was long and let's put it this way, once you've seen part of Kansas you've seen all of Kansas. I would have happily gone around Kansas, but I couldn't that would take too long.
"Why didn't we just take a plane?" Grace asked.
"Well we had Percy at first, and my mom and Zeus aren't exactly on great terms right now and that may have something to do with me, but I'm not taking my chances." I said. "At least not with all of you here to."
"My brother, the careful one." Lilly grumbled.
"Oh I'm sorry for being, careful with my sister." I rolled my eyes and looked over at Grace. "So Grace did you sleep well?"
"Why do you ask?" She yawned.
"You just look really tired. That's all." I shrugged.
"Um, not really, I was up all night but other than that I'm fine." She yawned again.
"Get some sleep, we have an hour or so." I said. Grace nodded and leaned against the window, soon she was sleeping, and Lilly leaned forward.
"Good now I can change the radio." She switched the station to the news and I raised my eyebrows. "I want to find out if our scorpion incident made the morning news, and what the mortals saw."
Apparently a mortal farmer had been out for a walk and had seen two kids attacking a monster truck and its driver before running into the corn field. More of the mortals had reported seeing us steal cars, so we were now fugitives. Gods what was mom going to say? I guess it's not the wildest thing I've done these last few months, time traveling definitely topped my list of crazy things I'd done.
"Well it's not the first time I've been a fugitive, when Percy and I were twelve we were national fugitives. Percy was the fugitive I was the comrade." Annabeth said.
"Yeah but I've nearly changed the course of the revolutionary war." I pointed out she winced.
"Okay that is worse; do you have any idea what you could have done to our country?" Annabeth said, I looked at my feet instinctively for my bag.
"Damn." I cursed
"What?" Annabeth asked obviously a little concerned, the car pulled to halt.
"We're out of gas, and my bag was in the car that exploded." I said. That meant the box was in the car too, which meant it was gone.
It might seem crazy but I had the feeling that box held some kind of a clue. A clue about my father. My mother hadn't told me who he was but clearly both she and Apollo knew who he was and neither of them were sharing the information. If my mom wasn't telling me I knew it probably meant he was a pretty bad guy or it was something along those lines.
"Sham, I think that us being out of Gas is worse than your bag being blown up." Lilly said.
"You don't understand I had a box in there, one that mom gave me, I never opened it but I think it contained a clue to who dad was." I sighed.
"Shamrock." Lilly's voice was little more then I whisper now. "I opened mine and all it contained was a hair clip, very beautiful and old but just a hair pin."
"No! That's not right this was important and now it's gone." I lay my head against the steeiring wheel, and Grace, who must have woken up when we were talking, put an arm around me.
"Now ain't this sweet?" A gruff and mean voice said, I looked up and I filled with a bubbling hatred.
"Ares." I growled.
"Yeah you little punk! The lady wants to talk to you and the red head!" He snarled, "Oh and I got something for ya!" He threw our bags in to the window, I opened mine and there was the box. "You're welcome; I had to go into the fire for that!"
"Thank you lord Ares." I said, and Grace and I climbed out of the car and saw a limousine pulled up next to us. We climbed in and there putting on make-up was Lady Aphrodite.
"Hey sugarplum." She said noticing us as we sat down.
Okay I will try to get this up on time next time. Sorry!
"Why are you here?" I asked.
"Well can't you tell hun?" She frowned. "I'm here to help!"
"Um no offence L-lady Aphrodite b-but the last time you help S-shamrock fell off a c-cliff." Grace was shaking and I realized with a start that she was afraid of her.
"Well that was just a flaw dear, I'm really here to talk to you, and I just need Shamy here to listen." Aphrodite gushed. I scowled; I didn't really like the nick name she'd given me. Shamy? Really, Grace and my friends can call my Sham, but Shamy is a huge no, no!
"I-I won't talk to you." Grace set her jaw and tried to not to let her voice quaver, and I'll admit I was a little scared myself. Its natural this was my mom's natural enemy, and that instantly made her my natural enemy too.
"Oh honey, I see you're still in the stage I call 'Denial'" Aphrodite clucked her tongue. "Don't worry about it though we'll soon get you moved past that."
"So do I get a part in this conversation?" I asked.
"Grace Honey, come on, please?" Aphrodite begged. She shook her head, Aphrodite sighed in defeat, but I knew she would never give up. "Oh well then, you can go. But it will all come out in good time." We climbed out of the car; Ares gave one final sneer and drove away.
I looked into my bag and grabbed the box; I set it on the ground and opened it. Inside was a belt, of brown leather and three beautiful, sea green, quartz stones were inlayed in it. "This is it? I said a belt?" I won't deny that I was slightly hurt, I thought that I would find some kind of clue as to who my father was but no, all I got was this belt, and exact replica of the one Orion had been wearing at my funeral.
"Shamrock." Annabeth breathed, "That's no ordinary belt. That's Orion's belt." And in that sentence it all made sense.